Sundaram Tagore gallery is pleased to present the work of Susan Weil in an exhibition entitled Motion Pictures. This is the New York-based artist's first solo show in Hong Kong. The exhibition opens with a cocktail reception on February 18, 2009, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. and closes March 21, 2009.
Susan Weil is one of the boldest, most innovative female artists working today. Her experimental works are playful explorations of movements in time. Weil arrived in New York City in the 1950s when the art scene erupted. Moving in the same circles as Jackson Pollock, William de Kooning and Jasper Johns, she was at the heart of the city's renaissance. Most notable are her collaborations with her first husband, the world renowned Robert Rauschenberg, and her friend Jasper Johns. Rauschenberg and Weil produced the Blueprint paintings of 1950 shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Weil explains, "Growing up in the 1950s when Abstract Expressionism was blowing all the rules, it gave you a sense of possibility: You didn't have to be hemmed in by a square. You could really make these things move." Highly imaginative, her work leaps out of the confines of the framed painting. Using several scattered fragments she reconstructs a single image. The resulting compositions fracture the picture plane and harness the sculptural dimension of painting.
She positions panels across a wall to create three-dimensional mix media installations. Oftentimes fragments will protrude, recede and almost float, activating the surrounding environment. In some cases, the work breaks free from the wall entirely becoming a painted sculpture resting on the floor. Inquisitive and experimental, Weil is constantly exploring the possibilities of different media such as fabric, paper, wood and aluminum.
Throughout her career, Weil has combined figurative illustrations with the intangible qualities of time's movement. Through her crumpled, cut, and refigured compositions, one's eye is forced to contemplate numerous perspectives at once. The result is one not of dissonance and chaos but a harmonious sense of fluid movement. Her dynamic assemblages hover between the abstract and concrete. Curator Sundaram Tagore says, "Susan Weil's work is daring and inventive. Her contribution to twentieth-century American
art is critical."
About the Artist
Susan Weil was part of the New York School of artists who were active in the 1950s. She was educated the Académie Julian in Paris and the renowned Black Mountain College under the tutelage of Josef Albers. Weil has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her work is in several prominent museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. She has exhibited internationally at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C.; National Museum, Stockholm; Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki; Bayerischen Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich; and Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. Weil continues to live and work in New York City.
For more information, contact hongkong@sundaramtagore.com or call 2581 9678
